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15 Aug 2014

“Technology doesn’t change the world. People do.”

This week our CEO, Bridgit Hawkins, shares some of her experiences at the recent third New Zealand Primary Sector Bootcamp at Stanford University.

"Technology doesn’t change the world. People do.” This is one of PayPal’s slogans. Never a truer word spoken if you ask me. I have just come back from a week at Stanford University along with a group of New Zealand leaders in the Primary Sector – the third Primary Sector Bootcamp. What an amazing and enriching experience. Getting to visit PayPal and Google were definitely highlights, right up there with hearing Condoleezza Rice and Victoria Ransom speak.

What was really exciting was confirmation of how much a part of the future Regen’s approach to delivering value to its customers is. How much in the future the way we do this is already. And how much potential to keep innovating there is. Seeing how PayPal is using technology to “take the friction out” of everyday transactions, to support the relationship between retailers and customers - imagine never having to queue to pay at a restaurant because you can do it all on your phone, and being offered free fries as you walk in the door because they know you haven’t been back for a while! Maybe it is a bit unnerving to think that your mobile phone is becoming an undercover agent lurking in the shadows of your pocket. But you get to choose how much you want to be connected, and there will be so many ways we can’t even imagine yet that technology will enable us to interact with each other.

The other fantastic aspect was being part of the discussions and thinking with 40 others, also passionate about New Zealand agriculture. The key to this is about changing our mind-set. Flipping the view of ourselves and what we see as challenges into a positive view that flows to actions. In a few weeks’ time I want to share with you the actions that I will be taking to be part of this – watch out for this blog post!

In the meantime remember - it isn’t technology that changes the world – its people (that’s us).